Conventional client/server computer systems provide a coupling between a server computer and one or more client computers. In such systems, the server computer is provided having server based application programs and a server based storage area that can be used by the one or more client computers. A client computer can access the server based application programs, for example a word processor program, that resides upon the server computer. The client computer can save data, for example a word processor document, to the server based storage area, and can also retrieve the word processor document from the server based storage area.
The client computers coupled to the server computer can also contain client based application programs and a client based storage area local to the client computer. A typical client/server computer system has both server based and client based application programs and storage areas. In general, application programs and storage areas that are to be used by more than one client computer are provided in association with the server computer. Conversely, application programs and storage areas that are used by only one client computer are generally provided in association with the one client computer.
Conventional client/server computer systems can be provided having client and server computers coupled with a variety of connections. When the computers are in relatively close proximity, the connections can be direct wire connections, or radio link connections. When the computers are remote from each other, the connections can include telephone wires, cable TV (CATV) wires, and/or satellite links. There is no limitation as to the physical separation of any of the computers of a client/server computer system.
Conventional client/server computer systems can be provided having client and server computers coupled with a variety of electronic communication protocols. For example, TCP/IP is know to be a communication protocol that can send computer information over any of the connections mentioned above, without limitation as to physical separation. Other protocols, for example Ethernet, can control the distribution of TCP/IP information around a local area network (LAN) of computers.
It will be recognized that conventional client/server systems having one or more “test client computers” that perform test functions provide no synchronization of data between the one or more test client computers. For example, in one illustrative system, a first test client computer can perform a program that expects to find test data from a Test 1 in the server based storage area. The server based storage area can contain data from many tests, including data from the Test 1. Alternatively, the server based storage area can contain no data from the Test 1. In either case, no mechanism is provided by the conventional client/server computer system that allows the first test client computer to either identify the requested data, here data from the Test 1, from among the various data, or to identify an absence of such data.
Computers have been applied as test computers associated with contact centers. Contact centers will be recognized as those systems to which a person can communicate to receive information. Such communication can include, but is not limited to, telephone calls, internet access, email, and FAX.
A contact center can include one or more interactive voice response systems (IVR). The one or more IVRs provide automatic branching voice queries to which the caller responds with button pushes on a telephone keypad or with voice responses on a telephone. The contact center is provided having only the one or more IVR systems, or alternatively, it is also provided having human agents. For example, at the end of the IVR branching voice queries, the caller is directed to press zero to speak to an agent. The agent is a person having a telephone to talk to the caller, hereafter referred to as an “agent telephone,” and a computer to access information about the caller, hereafter referred to as an “agent computer.” Note that though the agent telephone and the agent computer are often associated with one person, they correspond to distinct electronic systems and will be separately referred to herein.
The contact center can also include one or more database server computers, one or more database storage areas, one or more web server computers, one or more email server computers.
Various testing systems have been provided to test functions associated with the contact center. For example, the HammerIT™ from Empirix, Inc. of Waltham, Mass., can be used to simulate telephone callers in a public switched telephone network (PSTN) having one or more telephone callers who access the contact center either sequentially or in parallel. The HammerIT™ system provides a “virtual telephone caller system” having “virtual telephone callers” that can exercise and test the responses of the one or more IVR systems. The virtual telephone caller system can also be used to test the agent telephone functions of the contact center, providing a “virtual agent telephone system” having “virtual agent telephones.” The virtual telephone caller system can also be used to test FAX functions of the contact center.
Various testing systems have also been provided to test the agent computer function of the contact center. For example, the E-test™ system from the Empirix Inc. can be used to simulate the computer functions of the agent computer, providing a “virtual agent computer system” having “virtual agent computers.” The E-test™ system can also provide a “virtual web user system” having “virtual web users” that include simulations of people who access web pages on a web server within the contact center, people who send/receive email associated with an email server within the contact center, and people who send/receive FAX information associated with a FAX system within the contact center. The virtual telephone caller systems, virtual agent telephone systems, virtual agent computer systems, and virtual web user systems will hereafter be referred to as “virtual test systems.” The overall prior art system is shown below in association with FIG. 1.
Though virtual test systems have been provided to test a contact center, there has been no ability to synchronize the various virtual test systems. Synchronization can provide useful test information not otherwise provided. In particular, latency time measurements between an “action” provided by a first virtual test system, and a measurement of a contact center “function” provided by a second virtual test system could provide useful information to a contact center designer or contact center manager.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a system that can synchronize the operation of a variety of test client computers. It would be further desirable to provide a system that can synchronize the operations of a variety of virtual test systems coupled to a contact center.